As powerful drugs, opioids are very likely to cause chemical dependency and highly addictive. Because of this, it's not common for a user to be able to simply stop taking them. That’s why treatment for opioid addiction is so important. Often that starts with opioid detox, a process in which the body works through ... Read More
Search Results for: opioid
Understanding Opioids
Opioid addiction has been discussed as one of the biggest public health concerns in the United States, taking more lives that gun violence or traffic accidents. Ending the nation's opioid crisis involves understanding what opioids are, how the epidemic was caused, and how the addiction can be treated is ... Read More
More Opioid Scripts Than People Are Only One Sign of Michigan’s Drug Problem
The drug statistics in Michigan are dire, reflecting the rising drug problem across the rest of the United States. According to mlive.com, Michigan was the 4th ranked state in the country for drug use in 2018. A major factor in the state's drug problem is the high number of opioid prescriptions. As reported by the ... Read More
The 5th Vital Sign: How Treating Pain Contributed to the Opioid Epidemic
In medicine, there are four key vital signs: temperature, pulse, respiration and blood pressure. However, in many ways, pain is often seen as a phantom fifth vital sign. After all, a doctor's oath quite literally states "First, do no harm," and what is more harmful than pain? As such, keeping patients pain-free and ... Read More
Challenge and Progress: Connecticut & The Opioid Crisis
As the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports, few regions of the United States have been hit by the opioid crisis as hard as New England, with Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts all experiencing annual overdose counts that are breaking records. Another New England State, Connecticut is making news ... Read More
America’s Response to Opioids: Rising to the Challenge?
Opioids are one of the biggest threats to Americans today, as the National Institute on Drug Abuse makes clear in a recent report. As of January 2019, over 130 people die every day using opioids. This includes drugs such as prescription painkillers and synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and heroin. Consider it from a ... Read More
Delray Beach Tackles the Opioid Crisis
Opioid addiction continues to be a growing problem throughout the United States. The epidemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has cost 700,000 lives from 1999 through 2017. In 2017 alone, there were 70,200 drug overdose deaths across the country — 68 percent related to opioid use. ... Read More
An Anti-Opioid Vaccine? The Latest Developments
When we think of vaccines, we immediately think of infectious diseases like the measles, mumps, pertussis and polio. But now, Scripps Research Institute researchers have developed a possible anti-opioid (addiction) vaccine involving monoclonal antibodies to prevent opioid addiction in at-risk individuals. Afterall, we ... Read More
